Thursday, June 26, 2008

the new tech

so for a couple of months now, all the employees at the pharmacy have been begging the owner to higher a new tech. with both of our interns gone, myself going to school full-time, and only 2 full-time techs, we've been a little short lately.
now, however, perhaps being short on techs was the better option.
the owner hired the new tech 2 weeks ago. he started last monday. here are some of the amazing things we have had to deal with since:
-he likes to take off for 45 minutes to get lunch with his girlfriend, and not tell anybody when he leaves. i know by law we have to let him leave for a break if he asks, but all the other techs stay as a courtesy to one another. sure, it might be slow when you leave, but 5 minutes later, we could be slammed. such a thing happened last thursday, leaving 2 techs and a pharmacist to figure things out, without a clerk, as she left early as well.
-he conveniently forgot to subtract the half hour to 45 minutes from the hours he worked, and wrote down a full 9 hours on our timesheet.
-he charged someone $34 for a usually $10 prescription, and $99 for on that is $47. as an independent pharmacy, we have to watch prices very carefully. we also recently found out that the pharmacy he came from (another independent that was bought out by walgreens) had been getting reimbursed by medicaid only $150 for a $280 prescription. no wonder the pharmacy shut down. they were losing over $100 a MONTH on only one prescription.
-lastly, and most scary, he filled someone's robinul with ropinirole. unfortunately, the mistake got past our pharmacist and out of the pharmacy. luckily, it was a really good customer who is extremely nice. she called to let us know she received the wrong medication and we fixed it for her today.
i really am starting to not like the new tech, and i've only worked with him once, since he's only there to fill in the days that i'm at school. the few times our paths have crossed though, i have found him to be extremely arrogant and unwilling to listen to constructive criticism or instructions. if i ever get the chance to work with him again, i will be taking him down a few notches. just because you know how to work foundations, does NOT mean you are the best tech in the whole wide world.

Friday, June 6, 2008

sometimes doctors are retarded

and sometimes they are amazing. i've dealt with a little of both today.

i went to a new general practitioner today as i've had some doubts about mine ever since she diagnosed me with prediabetes after only running one set of tests. bascially our conversation went like this:
me: my periods really suck. i don't know why.
md: well, i think your sister has pcos, so you probably have it too. and so you're probably prediabetic. let's draw your blood.
i was never told to go in fasting to that appointment, so what she thought was a fasting glucose level actually was not. now i can understand that seeing a "fasting" of 115-120 would be alarming. however, she also ran an a1c test, which i think she chose to ignore after having the following conv. with her nurse at a prediabetes clinic:
me: umm, my a1c is 5.1%. is that just okay?
nurse: whoa, no, actually that's great. keep doing what you're doing!
those test results were from october. i talked to the nurse in april. for 7 months i was on four 500 mg XR metformin once a day. when i finally got those original test results i brought them into the pharmacy and discussed with one of the pharmacists whether or not i should continue taking the metformin. we decided that i should try to go off of it and keep testing my blood sugars to see what would happen. guess what? there was little to no change.
so today when i went to see the new doctor, i brought in my old test results with my little notebook of all my blood sugars written down. as i was telling him all of this, he kind of gave me a weird look when i told him i had an a1c of 5.1% and almost freaked out when i told him about my metformin dosage. i am glad to say that i have been officially taken off of it and will continue with lifestyle changes for the next 6 months when i will be retested and we will see where i stand. yay for competent doctors!

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

pharmacy schools

so this summer one of my goals is to narrow down where i want to go for pharmacy school (and figure out where will accept me...that's another story though). i know that some pharmacy people read this, so i want your opinions. tell me where you went to school and why you loved/hated/are apathetic about it. i'm looking at the northern u.s., specifically northwest. because i hate hot climates. well, not so much that i hate them, just that i'm in a perma-bad mood when the temp climbs too much above 72F. and the NW is still fairly close to the family. but basically i'll go wherever will take me. so yeah. give me some feedback!

Saturday, May 31, 2008

sequins, sparkles, and all that jazz

first order of business: highly recommended song of the day - the call by regina spektor. even if you're not a narnia fan, this song is still pretty awesome.

second order of business: people who proved their retardedness beyond a reasonable doubt today.
-extremely overweight woman decked out in sequins and beads with a hairdo that more resembled a fountain than hair. why is it that every woman who looks like this has an obnoxiously, high-pitched, girlish voice? and why do they think that it's cute and try to use their *ahem* girlish charms to flirt with male pharmacy staff? seriously. gag me with a spoon.
-another extremely overweight woman who blamed her swelling on the salts in her Klor-Con. i seriously doubt that the potassium chloride has anything to do with your rings no longer fitting your fingers. i believe a more appropriate culprit would be all the junk food you stuff in your fat, i mean, swollen face.
-man who tried to convince us that the doctor really did mean to write for ms contin 60 mg 6 times daily instead of qid. he sat in our waiting area for near 45 minutes, continually telling us "can't i just buy some until the insurance will pay? i mean, you have the prescription, you know he obviously wants me to be on it." um, except federal law prohibits us doing that. i think we would be the most popular pharmacy in town if we took every person's word on what their dosage was supposed to be. "well, your doctor only wrote for oxycontin 20 mg bid, but if you're telling me it's supposed to be 80 mg every 3 hours, well, okay. i'll go ahead and change it." honestly. the doctor's office finally called us back and told us to stick to the original directions. the man left and said he would come back when his insurance would pay. 5 minutes later doctor's office calls us again to okay 6 times a day. well, you win some, you lose some. i'd rather be on the right side of the law in this case.
-other man whose insurance was requiring a pa to pay for both his oxycontin 40 mg and 80 mg. i called and talk to an insurance agent who was actually competent and told me he could do one or the other, but not both. i tried to explain this to man, but he kept yelling at me telling me i needed to call the insurance. couldn't quite seem to understand that i had just done so.
-man (and his wife) who is on state medicaid. receives monthly oxycontin prescription for $3. but has no problem telling me to not run his percocet rx through insurance and will gladly pay the $90 for it. i wouldn't even pay $90 for a prescription, and i no where near qualify for medicaid. sometimes i hate my state.
-lady with 2 children, probably ages 8 to 10, with a rather ample chest and a shirt that would have been qualified as soft-core porn if it had been any lower. i don't want to see that. you might as well have been the breast-feeding lady.
-another "breast" related issue, another, younger mother with again 2 children, a boy and a girl, around the same age as above, at the kohl's. they go past the lingerie department when mom realizes she needs to get a bra. she tells her kids to look for the "ones with the wire in them." to which her kids immediately start asking what the wire's for. i booked it as far away as possible because i couldn't take any more stupidity today.
-stupid, squeaky shopping cart. not a person, but still annoyed the heck out of me.
-people who call up the pharmacy and say "fill everything we got last time." there will always be something they don't need. "what? why did you fill this?! i don't need this! take it back!" freaking a. how hard is it to call in a list of numbers? oh wait, your fingers are too "swollen" to actually use a pen to write down the rx's you need or to even pick up the bottle so you can read the number off to us over the phone. agh.
-so it's bad enough when you have people freak out at you, let alone when they're people you actually know outside of the pharmacy and know quite well. granted, this woman didn't get in to an all-out freak-out, but she was almost there. i would have lost it if she had started yelling at me, as she was practically like a second mother to me while i was growing up. apparently once you put on the white coat, you're no longer a human being. my favorite though is when people from our old neighborhood come in and no longer recognize me and act like total beasts. they always pull this line of "well, i know the owner and he ALWAYS does this for me." to which i want to reply, "yeah, well, i grew up in the same neighborhood and i know the owner too, actually have known him since i was pretty much BORN, but he's not here and i'm NOT going to do it for you."
-people, especially women, who call in with a question, but when they hear a girl on the line, they always instruct us to ask one of the 2 men who work there. my sweet, female pharmacist got that earlier this week.
patient: oh, well, will you just ask bob (not real pharmacist's name) what he thinks?
pharmD: actually, i AM the pharmacist, and here's what's going on....(proceeds to answer question competently)
i love how customers doubt our knowledge (well, mainly her knowledge as i don't even know 1/32nd of what she does) just because we're young and female. i get this a lot too in chemistry and math classes. my favorite is when it's other women doubting you. seriously, whatever happened to feminism? do you refuse to vote as well because that's your husband's domain? i just love it when i get these weird stares from boys (and occasionally girls) when i answer a question correctly in class that had all of them scratching their heads. yes, you can be smart, strong, AND feminine. WOW! it's revolutionary!

so that's about it. a day of rest and then back to the grindstone. whooo.

Friday, May 30, 2008

way to be a friend

sometimes i think i'm still in junior high. tonight is one of those times.

i love how you can be friends with someone since before forever. yet when newer and supposedly "cooler" people come along, they push you aside like yesterday's garbage. and just what makes these people so cool? just because they'll drink and party and make you feel good about your bad and stupid decisions? whereas i probably wouldn't let you get yourself into trouble and would prevent you from being a total idiot, just because i care about you. i love how you only invited me to hang out with them once and proceeded to ignore me the entire time. way to be a true friend. after that, i never received another invitation. not that i would accept anyway. i prefer to hang out with people who have a collective iq that is higher than 2. way to pick friends who only care about their looks, drinking, and partying as much as possible. we'll see who your true friends are soon enough. who will still be there when you get married? when you have your first kid? when you have your first grandchild? i'm guessing not them, self-absorbed as they are. but me, who you treat like crap on the bottom of your shoe, who you ignore, will always be there, when you're ready to come to your senses. guess what? as soon as you start to settle down, go to the bars and clubs less, you'll stop being cool to them. they'll move on without you. i'll be here though. just like always. little reliable laura. always there when you're in a pickle. always run to me when life sucks, then ditch me when it gets good again. fine by me. it's the role i've chosen. but keep it up and sometime soon you'll find yourself falling flat on your face without me there to pick you up again. then you'll see how it feels to be abandoned.

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

happy memorial day!

first off, thank you pharmLand for linking my blog! it's kind of funny to see how my pagecount has skyrocketed the past couple days.

it's days like today i'm glad i work for an independent. no work for me on memorial day! and bonus points for no work tomorrow as i have class. :) i feel sorry for all my fellow pharmacy staff members out there who have to deal with the nightmare that is a post-holiday-monday tuesday. i remember last year working that tuesday. it was my first real experience with how insane pharmacy work can be. ah, those were the days. back when i was young, and naive and believed that "no way would a doctor actually write for that high of a dose of oxycontin!"

on a side note, breast-feeding in public is gross. especially when there are boys sitting at the same table as you (the breast-feeder) who are between the ages of 16 and 23. and especially when i get flashed by you as you get ready to give baby his dinner. seriously. i'm all for breast-feeding. really. but not in public. why is it okay to show your boobs when there's a baby attached, but not otherwise? i'm glad you're using your child as an excuse to show the goods off to the entire restaurant.
/end rant.

Sunday, May 25, 2008

i couldn't hear with your voice ringing in my ears

that is from "make you smile" by plus 44, for those of you who don't know.
for once i have no stupid customer stories or anything to get off my chest that i'm angry about. mainly just bored. so to kill the next 20 minutes or so, i'm doing a survey. feel free to stop reading now, as you probably won't find it very interesting.

60 things you may not have known about me until you read this...

What is in the back of your car?
nothing in the back seat. in the trunk i have a blanket, tennis shoes, socks, an emergency kit, a reusable shopping bag for groceries, a jack, and other various tire-changing tools.

What color is your toothbrush?
pink.

Name one person that made you smile today?
alanna.

What were you doing at 8 am this morning?
tch. heck, i was still asleep! no work or school today!

What were you doing 45 minutes ago?
online shopping for day planners.

What is your favorite candy bar?
oooh. i don't know. probably a snickers.

Have you ever been to a strip club?
negatory.

What is the last thing you said aloud?
"that's cool!" - commenting on nico rosberg's 6th place starting postion at the monaco gp.

What is the best ice cream flavor?
ben and jerry's new york super fudge chunk or chocolate brownie.

What was the last thing you had to drink?
diet coke.

What are you wearing right now?
american eagle jeans, new pink shirt from steve & barry's, and a pink billabong jacket.

What was the last thing you ate?
winger's cookie and ice cream dessert.

Have you bought any new clothing items this week?
oh of course. i went shopping at steve & barry's and got 3 new shrits, a jacket, and some capris. also went to the wally-mart and got some cheap workout pants.

When was the last time you ran?
ooh, not such a big fan of the running. more of a biking kind of gal.

The last sporting event you watched?
in its entirety? a gymanstics meet.

What is your favorite flavor of popcorn?
carmel. or plain.

Who is the last person you sent a comment/message on myspace?
christina.

Ever go camping?
yep. used to go once a year. haven't been for 2 years or so though.

Do you take vitamins daily?
ha, when i remember and go on a sudden health binge.

Do you go to church every Sunday?
i should. do i? not really.

Do you have a tan?
i'm trying to get a fake tan by using that nivea tanning lotion. not working so hot though.

Do you like Chinese food over pizza?
ew, no.

Do you drink your soda with a straw?
depends. if it's in a can, no.

What did your last text message say?
"she abandoned you huh?"

Are you someone's best friend?
well, i think so. if not, i should stop hanging out with her, as she's awfully bossy when we go to the gym.

What are you doing tomorrow?
church, homework, reading, making haystack cookies.

Where is your dad?
in the room across the hall, on his computer.

Look to your left, what do you see?
a door.

What color is your watch?
silver. same old fossil i've had since junior year of high school.

What do you think of when you think of Australia?
"wtf, mate?"

Do you use chap stick?
not necessarily that brand, but yes, i do.

What is your birthstone?
topaz.

Do you go in at fast food place or just hit the drive thru?
i am the a-typical lazy american when it comes to fast food restaurants. i use the drive through. however, i NEVER use a pharmacy drive through. i'm much less worried about wendy's screwing up my order by having them work super fast than i am about the pharmacy screwing up by making them work too fast.

What is your favorite number?
6.022x10^23

Do you have a dog?
no. although my cat acts like one

Last person you talked to on the phone?
alanna

Have you met anyone famous?
i once knew the ex-drummer of good charlotte who is the current drummer for the summer obsession.

Any plans today?
today is now tomorrow. so, no.

How many states have you lived in?
1

Ever go to college?
currently going.

Do you dye your hair?
nope. my mother would kill me. and i know i'd never get it back to my original color. i've watched my sister go through that.

Biggest annoyance in your life right now?
my cat crawling all over my desk.

Can you say the alphabet backwards?
if i take my time.

Do you have a maid service clean your house?
um, i think my mom would get mad if i called her a maid.

Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time?
i try not to play favoritism with my children shoes.

Are you jealous of anyone?
psht. people should be jealous of me.

Is anyone jealous of you?
see above.

Do you love anyone?
love? we'll see. it's much too early to tell.

Do any of your friends have children?
ew, sick! well, not friends, but acquaintances. and by this, i mean friends of the same age as me. i do have older friends and colleagues who DO have children.

Do you eat healthy?
i try.

What do you usually do during the day?
either school or work.

Do you hate anyone that you know right now?
of course.

Do you use the word 'hello' daily?
yeah.

What color is your car?
white with some nice rust spots. which will hopefully be removed very soon.